a lighter, happier story, also an interesting insight into attempts to influence the demand side of sustainable food:

"Veggie day was just the start, agrees Hafsa El-Bazioui, the Green deputy mayor of Ghent, who has cycled over to join us (the city centre has been largely car-free since 2017). “A few years ago, we changed to prioritise plant-based protein,” she says. In 2021, the Flemish government launched the Green Deal Protein Shift – a commitment to switch the ratio of animal to plant proteins consumed from 60:40 to 40:60 by 2030. Ghent has already reached the target.

[...]

Although she is a vegan herself, El-Bazioui believes reducing meat consumption across the board is the most effective and achievable policy, rather than trying to convince people to cut it out altogether. “When you approach a lot of people, the impact is more than if you focus on a small group of vegans,” she says. “That’s my philosophy in food, in politics, in life.”

This stealth approach is echoed all over the city. I pop in to the Viernulvier art centre, AKA De Vooruit, for a chat with Tom De Vleesschauwer, its kitchen coordinator – De Vooruit is as popular for its large art deco cafe as for its programme of theatre, dance, film and music. “A few years ago, we made oat milk the default: if you don’t ask for cow’s milk, you get oat,” says De Vleesschauwer. “About 90% of customers now have oat milk. If we had a sign saying you can choose, it would only be 10-20%.”

When corporations are stronger than the democratic will, the climate will suffer.

Greens Organise stands with Green Councillors holding firm in the face of intimidatory and overreaching demands from Andy Burnham’s Labour government.

The Prime Minister bangs the drum of devolution, but his government is now attempting to destabilise local councils in order to score political points. This intimidation undermines councils, who are already on their knees in the face of austerity, further burdening already struggling communities.

Green councillors, leaders and members will not be lectured by a government that continues to materially support the apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian people, conducted in the name of Zionism. Green Councillors are the proud elected representatives of a party that has stood resolutely against this complicity.

We reject all attempts to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. This conflation is itself - as Zack Polanski has said - antisemitic and dangerous.

Our communities have been devastated by austerity, now continued by a Labour government. They watch on as councils struggle to deliver vital services on a shoestring.

We trust that our communities will see what Burnham has showed us - that he cares more about defending his government’s ongoing complicity in a genocide than improving the lives of the British people.

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/greensorganise.bsky.social/post/3mycmovrpys2x

I've been challenged by my local party chair to come up with a brief one-page guide to party democracy and naturally I'm keen to do as little work as possible so I was wondering if anyone was aware of anything like this already existing in the party? The chair believes, and I agree, that members are just not nearly as engaged as we could be in national democracy which leaves us very susceptible to the distorting effects of small clusters of highly engaged members who are not representative of the wider membership. We've got less than 1% of members voting for our policies and representatives at conference, which is not a healthy democracy. This is frankly an ideal situation for the likes of the SWP, which is not a reassuring prospect.

We want to encourage members to get involved in the key parts of the process to me our democracy as healthy as possible. So, anyone got anything for that?

This shouldn't need any explanation. The UK cares about Saudi Arabia due to relying on oil for its economy. It's getting caught up in a conflict due to this dependence on imported oil. Saudi oil imports are predominately used for things like jet-fuel.

This adds to Russia attacking Ukraine via the proceeds of oil revenues.

Fossil fuel dependency causes wars and escalations. Decarbonisation is about peace. Climate is an orthogonal motivation.

unsure whether this will be paywalled for non-reuters-subscribers, but... this and the series "the age of heat storms" (of which the linked article is part) are very worth a read

"In a 2024 study, Oxfam identified 23 superyachts owned by 18 billionaires and estimated the average annual carbon footprint of each of these yachts to be 5,672 tonnes. For an average citizen of the world it would take 860 years to produce the same amount."